


Camber

by Charlotte_Lancer



Series: Flight Plan Series [4]
Category: The Grand Tour (TV) RPF, Top Gear (UK) RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Coming Out, Flashbacks, Friendship, Gen, Hopeful Ending, Not Beta Read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-06 01:20:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20498519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Charlotte_Lancer/pseuds/Charlotte_Lancer
Summary: A pair of flashbacks showing why Andy wasn't exactly surprised by the events of Alternative Routes.





	Camber

**Author's Note:**

> As usual, this was written far too quickly, so please tell me if I've made any mistakes.

When Andy gets back to their dorm room, hours after curfew but still a bit before midnight, he arrives to a wholly unexpected scene.

Jeremy is laying in bed, blankets wrapped around his entire body like a cacoon, shaking. There’s an empty alcohol bottle on the floor next to the bed- Andy has no idea how Jeremy managed to acquire that- and when he walks closer he can just make out the sound of muffled sobs coming from inside the blankets.

Cautiously, Andy sits down on the side of Jeremy’s bed, and lays a hand on the part of the cocoon that he assumes to be Jeremy’s shoulder.

“Jeremy?” Andy says, squeezing his hand slightly.

“What?” Comes the muffled reply from under the mound of blankets.

“Are you alright?”

The cocoon shuffles, and Jeremy’s head pops out from the top. Jeremy’s eyes are red, and still wet with tears. Andy brings the back of his hand up to press against Jeremy’s forehead briefly.

“I’m fine, Andy.”

“Are you sure you’re not sick? You feel like you might have a fever. Do you want me to call the nurse?” He’d heard of people having bad reactions to alcohol before, and last year their teachers had made them sit through a video of all the ways it could kill you, but Jeremy shook his head, blinking back more tears.

“Not sick. You can go to bed now. Please.” Jeremy sank back down into the bed, shifting so that his face was planted into the pillow.

“Jeremy.”

“GO. AWAY.”

Sighing, Andy stood up and walked over to his own bed. He grabbed a magazine from the bedside table, and determinedly read two articles before looking back over to Jeremy, who, judging by the movement of his shoulders, was still crying silently into the pillow.

He stood back up, and made his way back over to Jeremy’s side of the room. Jeremy had squished himself into the side of the bed closest to the wall, so Andy took the opportunity to lay down in the narrow space next to him.

“You’re clearly not alright. Now, I’m going to stay right here until you tell me what’s wrong, so you can either tell me now and we can deal with whatever it is, or you can stay squished into the corner all night and barely be able to stand tomorrow.”

Jeremy groaned, but rolled so that he was facing the ceiling instead of the wall.

“I snuck out to a bar tonight,” he said.

_ That explained the bottle of alcohol, anyway. _ Andy made a noise of acknowledgement, and waited for Jeremy to continue.

“And I sort of met someone there. Someone who’d also snuck in.”

Another noise.

“And I sort of took them back to a motel, and…”

Andy made another noise. So far he wasn’t seeing much of a problem with Jeremy’s night, and unless the story was about to end with the girl being a contract killer or a foreign spy or something, he wasn;t sure how it had led to Jeremy’s current state of misery. He voiced as much to Jeremy.

“Not a criminal, but still definitely someone I shouldn’t have done.”

“Did you bag the Mr. Calvin’s daughter?” Andy couldn’t help but grin- the girl in question was definitely attractive, so he could see why Jeremy had gone there, but if her father- the Head of School- ever found out, he’d have Jeremy’s head- and other parts- on a plate.

“Not his daughter, no.”

“Oh my god! You slept with his wife!” Jeremy was a dead man man for sure, and Andy couldn’t help but laugh.

Jeremy turned to glare at him. “It was his son, you arsehole,” he spat, “For fuck’s sake, his wife’s older than King Tut!” Jeremy turned red and froze as it sank in what he’d just said, and when Andy didn’t say anything, Jeremy turned to the wall again, pulling the blanket over his head.

Finally, Andy’s brain decided to start working again, and he said,

“Hey, at least Scott’s way less likely to rat you out to his father. If it  _ was  _ Lisa you’d slept with, Mr. C would probably be banging that door down as we speak.”

Jeremy stilled again, before rolling to face up again. “You’re not gonna be weird about the whole, well,  _ Scott _ , thing?”

“As far as I can see it, it’s not any of my business if you’re gay.”

“I’m not gay, I like women, I just…” Jeremy trailed off, closing his eyes.

“Also like Scott?” Andy prompted.

“Yeah.”

It was silent for a few moments more, and then Andy stood up, patted Jeremy on the shoulder, and said,

“Good. Get some rest, in case you have to spend tomorrow running away from an angry Mr. C.”

Jeremy glared, but there was a hint of relief on his face that grew when Andy smiled down at him.

……….

……....

It’s years later before Jeremy says another word on the subject to Andy. They’ve just auditioned a bright young former radio host to be a presenter on their new, revamped Top Gear, and once the man is out of the room, Jeremy leans over to Andy, and says in a whisper,

“I think I like this one.” There’s a grin on Jeremy’s face that tells Andy that Jeremy doesn’t just mean for the show, and then a flash of nerves when Jeremy realizes that Andy knows.

“Well,” Andy says, turning his head to look at the door that the man had just exited through, “Something tells me that won’t be a problem.” Andy’s not sure himself what he means- whether he’s referring to the man’s great audition that’s sure to land him the job, or to the fact that Jeremy’s feelings looked to be almost certainly mutual- but clearly it’s what Jeremy needed to hear, as the nerves melt off of his face, replaced by the more usual expression of slight smugness that’s sat on Jeremy’s face near-constantly since the BBC had granted them permission for this project.

_ Somehow,  _ Andy thinks,  _ Somehow, despite all logic and rationality, Jeremy will find a way to bend the universe to his will and make this all work. _

Andy resigns himself to the veritable eternity of paperwork that's sure to come with it.


End file.
